A History of Halloweens
by BookwormBpants
Summary: Harry's Halloween is shaping up to be rather lonely. Will this Halloween turn out to be good after all?


Halloween had never been Harry's favorite holiday. This one his twenty first was shaping up to be not the worst but certainly not the best. The worst obviously was the halloween his parents had been murdered. Halloween with the Dursley's had been nothing to write home about. After starting Hogwarts there had been the troll his first year, the death day party and subsequent run in with a petrified Ms. Norris his second year, Sirius breaking into the castle in his third, he'd been selected for the tri wizard tournament in his fourth, his fifth year had been awful from start to finish, nothing special had happened on Halloween in his sixth year, and he'd been on the run from Voldemort in what should have been his seventh year. The next year the war had just ended and Harry had been coerced into giving a speech at a remembrance celebration at the ministry. The next year had been fun Teddy had been two and taking him trick or treating with Ginny and Andi had made it one of the best Halloween's ever. This year though Ginny was traveling with the Harpies and Teddy had a bad cold.

Harry hadn't had to spend Halloween alone since he was 10 and he was stuck on night shift at the auror department. He wasn't sure what this halloween had in store for him, but he dreaded the long night in the office.

This had to be the least activity the auror department had ever seen on Halloween. Harry and the four other aurors on shift this evening had all been in their cubicles for the last four hours filling out paperwork. Harry was happy for an uneventful Halloween, but couldn't some kids make a ruckus or something. They were all in danger of sleeping at their desks if the night carried on like this.

As the night wore on Harry began to wonder what his favorite people were up to. Teddy was definitely in bed by now, and Andi had probably taken advantage of the opportunity to turn in early herself. Ginny's game was over so Gwenog had probably shuffled all her players back to the hotel to review the match. The Weasley's had planned to do a family dinner for everything who didn't have plans, Ron and Hermione would both be at that dinner. Harry suddenly realized this was the first Halloween in a decade he hadn't spent at least part of with Ron and Hermione. They had been together through so much and yet tonight they had left him to drown in paperwork alone. He supposed he was becoming rather spoiled it was nice to have people you could always count on to be there.

Who would have thought that accidentally locking someone in a bathroom with a mountain troll could do such wonders for friendships. They had formed a special bond that day and they had been through so much since then. Where had all the time gone? How have they had ten Halloweens since they were innocent (well relatively innocent) first years who weren't yet intimately familiar with the darkness the wizarding world held. It didn't seem possible some days that time could slip by almost without him realizing it.

Almost as though he had summoned them with his thoughts Harry heard an all too familiar sound coming down the hallway towards his cubicle.

"Absolutely not Ronald you cannot put up real magic decorations at a muggle residence!"

"But Hermione, who's going to know everyone will just think your parents put out some really great decorations."

"No Ronald I will know, it is illegal, and you can't talk to my father anymore if you are going to encourage him to act immature. This Halloween isn't even over yet and you're already making plans for mischief for next year.

"Well I do work for George now mischief is sort of my job description."

"The answer is still no if George can come up with some cool muggle decorations before next year maybe I will let you share them with my father, but you will not do anything illegal."

"Alright luv, but you get to tell George no then, he's way to excited about decorating your parent's house. He feels muggles won't be as used to some of his tricks so he'll get a better response."

"That's …well a completely George reaction. Are we even sure Harry is here?"

"If he's not we can just wait for him. He isn't spending Halloween alone."

"I wasn't suggesting he should, I'm saying we should sent a patronus ahead or something it seem rude to just drop in on him at work."

"Hermione I worked here until a few weeks ago, and you work down the hall from Harry you are both in the department of law just in different areas."

"Still this feels too much like us sneaking around after hours to do something we shouldn't."

Harry stuck his head out of his cubicle to grin at his friends, "well look on the bright side Hermione we can't get expelled anymore."

Suddenly Harry found himself the victim of one on Hermione's hugs, he pushed her now not quite as bushy hair out of his face and saw Ron grinning at him over Hermione's shoulder.

"Hey Mate fancy seeing you here."

"You and the girlfriend often wander the halls of the auror department after hours?"

"Yeah it's a bad habit we come here looking for this specky, scrawny git who drives us a bit barmy. You haven't seen anyone like that tonight have you?"

"The only git I see has read hair and dirt on his nose."

Harry laughed as Hermione huffed at the two of them and pull them both into Harry's cubicle.

"We thought you might like some company Harry."

"Because it's Halloween and you think I'm going to get into trouble or do something stupid?"

"Well mate you doing something stupid is a given, and the chances of that happening on Halloween are higher than usual."

Harry made a rude hand gesture at Ron and promptly ducked the smack Hermione aimed at he back of his head.

"Keep that up you two and I will jinx your fingers together."

Harry and Ron assumed faces of innocence and Hermione's serious face cracked and she too started to giggle.

"You two will never grow up will you?"

Ron slung an arm around Hermione's shoulders, "Probably not, but you love us anyway."

Hermione just shook her head and Harry watched his two best friends thinking maybe this wouldn't be such. Bad Halloween after all.

After too many leftover sweets from the Burrow and too many hours of conversation, at least he'd gotten his paperwork done earlier. Harry saw his two best friends sitting on the floor of his cubicle fast asleep. Ron was snoring gently and Hermione had her head pillowed on Ron's shoulder. He really did have the best friends. He knew one thing about the future he hoped to have many more Halloween's with these two people who had changed his life so completely. They were always there when he needed them, and now he needed to send them to bed so he could finish out his shift.

Finally after convincing Ron and Hermione that he would still love them even if they din't stay his whole shift, and several productive work hours to make up for his goofing off earlier Harry finally got to go home. He apparated to his little flat and opened the door pleased to note Halloween had gone over without any major disasters this year. He had a family of people who loved him, some amazing friends, a godson who was so much more than Harry ever could have hoped for, and a loving girlfriend who would be home from her game later this afternoon. Harry drifted off to sleep thinking maybe Halloween wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
